67. Getting To Know You
Getting To Know You
Vandal
“Are you sure you want to go inside?” My hand is on the doorknob as I glance back at Lola for the tenth time.
“Yes. You live here, and I want to be able to visit where you live. Being afraid of a building because bad things happened here isn’t a mature viewpoint. We’re in this together. If you can live here, I can visit.” Lola reaches out and covers my hand with hers. “Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
Do I believe her? I don’t have a choice but to believe her. The door opens, and my eyes go to her.
Lola steps in and starts wandering around. “It looks completely different during the day.”
The lack of strobe lights and smoke haze makes all the difference.
“Your views are spectacular.” She walks over to the floor-to-ceiling windows. “You can see the whole campus from here. Wow.”
That was a selling point after the soundproofing and exorbitant price tag.
“This must cost a fortune.”
It was the most expensive place I could find near campus. “Yeah.”
“Are you paying for this or—”
“I pay for it.” And just in case we have someone spying on us, I walk over and turn on the music before approaching Lola to whisper in her ear, “There might be bugs. Watch what you say.”
“Oh. Okay. Were you born rich or did you—”
“I was born rich. I haven’t ever known a life without enough money to fund a small country.” Which is the actual truth and part of my cover.
“That must have been hard…relating to people. Trusting people to be your true friends.”
“It was.” Until I met my brothers. Though they don’t understand the amount of money I’m worth. They still treat me like a newbie instead of a spoiled rich boy. A few probably suspect, just based on my collection of bikes alone.
Lola jumps up and turns around with a vapid grin on her face. “I want ice cream. Take me for ice cream.”
What’s she playing at? “Okay.”
Once we’re out of the building and in a cluster of trees, Lola sighs. “How do you do that? Live under constant surveillance every day.”
It wouldn’t be wrong to say it’s not much different from growing up.
There was always a nanny, tutor, butler, or any of a dozen other servants in my vicinity at all times.
My father might not have wanted to see me, but he didn’t want it to appear like he didn’t care for his child ever. “I do what I have to do.”
“I hate that you’re fighting all of this alone. That they just sent you in to figure it out. That feels so wrong.” Lola walks up and wraps her arms around me. “I have to find a way to help you. It just kills me.”
“Lola, I’m not alone. You don’t need to worry.
My brothers are always close, and we hedged our bets.
There are several of us doing exactly the same thing, trying to find this guy.
So even if my contact turns out to be a bust, we’ll get him.
” Which we already know Carves isn’t a waste of time, but he might not be attached to The Ghost.
“Really. That takes a load of worry off of me. After everything I went through before…” Tears fill her eyes. “…it just makes me worry about you so much.”
“Lola.” I squeeze her close to me.
“You probably want to know, don’t you?”
Yes, and no. “I only want to know what you’re ready to share with me. Lola, I can wait until you feel comfortable. Or if you never do, just know I support and love you regardless of what happened to you before.”
“You’re so sweet. So thoughtful. That’s why I’ve fallen in love with you.
I knew from the instant I saw you that you were the man for me.
” Lola leads me over to an isolated bench.
“Before I found Willow Street, my life—” She glances up at the sky.
“—it really wasn’t a life. The series of torment that I endured…
I never thought it would end. I don’t know why I didn’t end it many years ago, but I guess I never lost hope that someway, somehow, I could find a way to live a normal life.
My father used to, well, he used to do things.
” She shakes her head. “I can’t. I just can’t. ”
“You’re safe now. He can’t hurt you. You don’t need to say anything else.”
“You understand.”
All too well. “Is he still alive?”
Lola’s eyes go even wider. “You were…you are thinking about…to them…to him.”
“I am.” Absolutely thinking about how I delete that man from the world with as much pain as humanly possible…death by a thousand cuts comes to mind…or coat him in honey and drop him on a fire ant mound...
“No.” She shakes her head. “I don’t even like the idea of you thinking about him. He’s dead to me. Let’s just leave him that way.”
For now, but definitely not forever. “Did you really want some ice cream?”
“It was just an excuse to get you out of there, but now it sounds kind of amazing.”
Any time I spend with you is amazing.